avalon or accord

aldeniro

Hi,
Getting married in a different county then where we are living currently. Have the usual bits of paperwork and require a final letter of freedom from our current parish priest and the pre nuptial form. With regard the course you have to attend, does it matter if its accord or avalon, there seems to be 60 quid in the difference with avalon being cheaper, this can also be completed in 1 day. Do we need to clear it with the priest or can we just do any one? 60 quid is 60 quid. Think some priests here suggest accord as they are irish based, but avalon are approved by irish church also?

Toots

Clear it with the priest first - it varies from parish to parish. Our priest insisted on Accord, however a friend who recently got married in a neighbouring parish was given a list of different organisations to choose from. It would be a shame to spend time and money on the Avalon one only to find out you had to do it with Accord, and vice versa.

Lindilo

Did the Avalon course today. It was good. easy going...talk if you like or dont. I had said to to our priest first he had no issues with it although he didnt know much Avalon. sooo glad its all done now!

aldeniro

Yep, did it mysel in limerick yest, to be honest a utter waste of time, nearly a 100 people in room, unless the likes of accord do it in smaller crowds, avalon are very much take the money and run. Positives are we arrived at 11am, had a 20min and also a 1 hr break for lunch, and then finished just after 4pm. Also 60 euro cheaper then accord.Nice and short, get in and out!

BC

Check with the priest - ours would only accept accord.

aldeniro

Had opportunity and took it to go with avalon course yesterday. Nearly 100 people there, reckon that once done, most priests will accept even though their preference is accord. Such was the load of crap that the course was, they can like it or lump it, as far as i am concerned i have 1 course done, and avalon is recognised by the church also, I will not be doing another course. If any issues with the avalon course, i will have to see what other options are open to us.

1in4

some good advice in the above comments to this thread about checking with the priest first before booking any course.

cyning

Our sacristan in our parish told us Accord only: the priest told us to go do Avalon one, that the parish never force anyone to do a second one, and to just ignore any "tut tutting"

Da GOAT

avalon was abit of craic.

coolusername

Hey!

I did check with the Parish Priest before I booked my course, and he said that they were more or less both the same.

The day after I did (and paid for!) the Avalon one, I had a meeting with the Priest (am living abroad and this was our first face-to-face contact), during which he told me that the Bishop of Meath (am getting married in Louth, but the town I am getting married in is in the Diocese of Meath) had quite recently sent a letter to the different Parishes, saying that they didn't 'like' the Avalon course as it's not as concerned with the religious aspects of marriage, as say, those by Accord, or indeed the Pre-Marriage courses sometimes run by the Parish Priests themselves.

I am lucky that the Priest was actually quite nice about it and agreed to accept the Avalon course anyway (actually he was lucky he accepted it - he knew when I had planned to take the course, and really could've let me know before I had forked out that kind of money, instead of after!) , but there may be others that will be more particular about it...